It's sad to say goodbye

After this past five and a half weeks I can confidently say I'm broke financially but I'm far more wealthy in regards to my new found friends and family from this FIO course. I've learned in immeasurable amount about Florida's ecosystems and even more about myself. Starting out our first full week in UWF, I thought I wouldn't be able to deal with the dorm life and living in close quarters with 8 young women but I've made it!!! This truly was an amazing experience and I recommend that future students take full advantage of this opportunity. Starting in the beautiful long leaf pine forests at UWF we started moving slowly further towards the ocean ecosystems. We learned about the watersheds and how the upland forests effect everything downhill and that these wonderful ecosystems are fully connected even though most people don't know that. We worked our way towards the beach to understand how they are formed and what effects the life there. Moving on to the great University of North Florida, we worked more with beach formation and processes. There, we did a 24-hr study in the field to see the biodiversity change throughout the night in the estuary. It was really cool to see what happens outside when most people are sleeping. After the great week in UNF it was hard to top, but my guys from FAU really came through and made the week in the Keys Marine lab my personal favorite of the trip. We were able to snorkel the coral reefs in the keys and learn the processes of this wonderful threatened ecosystem. To see the biodiversity and abundance of these reefs was very enlightening and brought me back to my roots of snorkeling and scuba diving. It was real hard to leave the Keys but we had to travel to Gulf Coast University to further our knowledge of the estuary systems. We dove into the water processes that shape the life of the river and the mixing seawater and I caught some catfish in the downtime. After the estuary, we moved to USF St. Pete to study the open ocean system by traveling on the R/V Weatherbird II and taking various samples from the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay area. We were able to study the water parameters and how it correlated with the great biodiversity we pulled up in our nets. It was great to get back on the boat again. Now that this wonderful course is over we all must part ways and get back to reality which is always a hard thing to do. But I can confidently say, this is not the last time you guys will be seeing me and I can't wait to get together and cause more mischief. Love you guys and miss you already!! Until next time, love, peace, and chicken grease!

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